Joel Always one syllable, sometimes "@jayroh"

ROFLCon – Day 1

25 Apr 2008 ⦁ #conference ⦁ #internet

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O HAI!

It’s been a long day and now, at 11:30 at night, I feel like I’ve had some time to mentally digest the binging of all things “INTERWEB” today.

What the hell is ROFLCon? You know the cats, with the funny captions? Leroy Jenkins? The Tron Guy? All internet memes. All people, websites, who’ve ended up being forwarded and instant messaged to THOUSANDS of people? These are the modern day 15 minutes of fame – but digital.

The first day of the convention felt organized, but not quite the well oiled machine I’ve experienced at other seminars or cons. It’s not quite reasonable to expect things are going to be pristine considering (I think) it’s being put together by college undergrads, mostly. Was it a better job than I could do? DEFINITELY. I mean they got TRON GUY to show up!

Highlights from the first day:

  • Keynote by David Weinberger was good. He had some really good insight on our new meme culture and why we hold onto it and nurture it so mightily as “internet people”
  • Marmaduke Explained guy easily took over the first panel with regards to “teh funny”
  • One Red Paper Clip guy – a very close #2 to Marmaduke. Very funny guy.
  • Unexpectedly running into R Stevens outside the conference. Joining him for lunch with Scott from Laughing Squid, Joel from Amplifier.com and (why am I blanking on her name?) from Penny Arcade. Reconnecting and meeting new people. Awesome!
  • Lolcats panel was pretty good. Lots of great one-liners (and some rather insane [in a good way] people).
  • Running into John Eckman – another Molecular Alumni – at the keynote. I KNEW it was him!

Lowlights:

  • Chuck Norris Facts guy didn’t seem like he really wanted to make too many friends there today. Overheard calling one of his fellow panelists a “downer”. Cmon dude.
  • Drinking Brawndo. Not my thing.

For a lot more coverage and a lot of great photos – visit the ROFLCon website. There’s way more there than I could even begin to to write about here. Also, you could follow me on Twitter for running quotes and random commentary. I guess I might be doing something right – 5′ish people I don’t know started following me today. Guess that’s good? Until tomorrow – kkthxbai.